ORLANDO, Fla.,None — Orlando's Winnie Palmer Hospital is seeing an alarming trend. Every week, at least one baby is being born addicted to painkillers. The problem is so widespread the Department of Children and Families has re-started a task force to fight the issue.
One local agency even has a waiting list for pill-addicted mothers.
Meet 5-week-old William, 4-week-old Jessenia, and 4-month-old Nevaeh, three babies spending the first months of their lives at the Center for Drug Free Living's women's residential program in Orlando. They live there with their moms.
"I got my last prescription when I was eight months pregnant and I was going to ten doctors a month," mother Maletta Galarza told WFTV.
The women say they represent how bad the prescription drug problem has gotten.
"I thought about being pregnant and having a baby and I still did it. That's how bad the addiction is," mother Jessica Cunningham told WFTV.
But they also represent hope. In recovery themselves, they're also caring for the babies born with drugs in their systems.
"To watch a tiny infant have seizures, it was terrifying," program director Joyce Bruton told WFTV.
Bruton says these moms are part of an unnerving trend.
"There is a waiting list for women to come into this program. There is a great need," she said.
The 32-bed facility is full and almost every woman there is battling an addiction to prescription pills.
The people who run the facility do their best with limited space. It used to be three women to a room, but now it's one bed for mom and a crib for the baby.
Programs like it are struggling to keep up with the demand, but they are making a difference.
"Due to our actions our children are suffering, but we're breaking the cycle and they don't have to suffer anymore," mother Ali Foltz told WFTV.
The babies in the program are under medical supervision. Doctors say the drugs commonly impact their central nervous system, but the long term effects vary from case to case.
WFTV
